Severed Indo-Pak Sporting Ties Hopes to Be Remedied by World Junior Squash Tournament
Shams-ul Haq, secretary of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF), shared to IANS on Monday that a world championship set to take place from the 20th of July to the 3rd of August will feature the country’s top junior squash players.
Pakistan’s ties with India were severed after the string of terrorizing attacks hit Mumbai the year before. This will be the first major world sports event set in India that a team of Pakistani squash players will be participating in.
Shams-ul Haq expressed hope that the boys in the team Pakistan will be sending out to participate in the world-wide major sporting event will somehow heal even just a little of what was left of the ties they have with India.
Pakistan strictly says that seeded players will not be permitted to participate in the championship like they did in the past to avoid what has happened in the 2008 event in Zurich. Aamir-Atlas Khan, the top seed in the said event, lost out to Mohammed El-Shorbagy of Egypt after the world junior division match.
Younger players will be sent to the field during the world championships instead of the top junior squash players to train them for oncoming tournaments of the same kind. Because of this, Pakistan dropped junior players like Wagar Mehbob and Danish Atlas, Aamir’s younger brother.
Nasir Igbal, 17 years old, along with Aurangzeb Mohmand Nausherwan and Farhan Zaman comprise the Pakistani team that will take part in the said sporting event.
The team of three, along with the newly appointed team manager, the former British Open Champion Qamar Zaman will be leaving for Chennai on the 25th of July to take part in the said world-wide event. Zaman was appointed by the PSF.
